


Living Through Time

by Stuppnow



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Drug Use, Friendship, He is a ghost, How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Konohagakure | Hidden Leaf Village, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Violence, Post-Fourth Shinobi War, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rewrite, Time Travel Fix-It, Uchiha Shisui Lives, Uchiha Shisui Needs a Hug, but like not that much, rewrite coz i wanted to make changes to the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29474874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stuppnow/pseuds/Stuppnow
Summary: War and trauma can change someone so much. People as colorful as Obito could turn dull and dark.And the inverse could happen. Naruto had lost his light, but if he really tried, maybe he could ignite it again.Not that it’ll ever happen.Sometime the wisest thing to do was giving up.Shisui had, and he could see in the carefully blank face of the blond that he did as well.____________Or: Shisui is alone, in the disastrous aftermaths of the Fourth Great Shinobi War. After having witnessed the horrors the world can commit, he received the ultimate mission: correct the mistakes leading to that point.
Relationships: Dai-nana-han | Team 7 & Uchiha Shisui
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

Shisui had lost hope a long, long time ago.

Once upon a time, he owned the notoriety of being a sunshine, a source of hope to his companions. A sturdy rock anyone could put their weight on to when they were unstable. A person people would run up to when they felt sad, because the stupid conversations and jokes he created would always cheer them up.

A radiant smile, contrasting with the milky white of his skin, the deep ink of his hair and the _blood coming from his eyes._

A smile releasing an aura so warm and comforting they forgot how lethal he truly was.

He carried many nicknames throughout his life. The world view him as “Shunshin no Shisui”, his opponents called him “Shisui of the thousand yards stare”, their distant allies named him “Shisui of the Sharingan”. However, Konoha’s population and those who knew him, who had seen the devotion he held in every action he made, who witnessed the care in his gaze when they saw him scan over the village; they dubbed Shisui the name of “Light of the Uchiha clan”.

Because, despite all the tension that clan had toward the village and vice versa, the citizens and shinobis alike viewed Shisui as one of them. The shinobis welcomed him into their ranks, first with judgement and fear, but eventually warmed up to his presence to the point of jokingly claim he could be a great Hokage some day. The citizen would be more discreet, intimidated by his stature and power. They would watch him from afar. The distance gradually trimmed at the disclosure of his mission successes, of the lives he saved, of the people he guarded. He became a symbol of protection. They would gift him the freshest of fish, the sweetest of tea and the largest piece of meat whenever he ate at a restaurant. Sometime going as far as offering free meal to the young Uchiha.

_‘A retribution for the all work you’ve done_.’ they insisted.

And Shisui would always respond with a grin, brighter and hotter than the sun.

At the news of his death, the nation turned sour. No one believed that Shisui Uchiha would commit suicide. The lively young teen was too cheerful for such actions. Just the day before, he was roaming through the streets, playing ‘ninja’ with his baby cousin, and then eating dango with his best friend.

He had a dazzling smile on his face, not the expression of someone about to kill themselves.

Some citizens started making theories. Each more absurd than the other. Ranging from ‘Yeah… it could be a suicide’ to ‘It must be that demon brat!’. They were just innocent speculations at first, assumptions generated by people either bored or grieving. But those speculations shifted into rumors, and like every rumor with enough points to be plausible, the people _latched_ on to it. Spreading it everywhere like wildfire. It reached every section of Konoha, even showing up in some parts of Sunagakure.

They had all heard the disastrous rumor that _‘The Uchiha clan is to blame. They never accepted Shisui and wanted to get rid of him in silence.’._

A lie so powerful it multiplied the pace in which a ravine of doubt dug itself between the village and the clan. It disgusted to the core even those who didn’t know Shisui. The village’s founders created the village with the goal of empowering comradery. The concept of a clan murdering one of theirs outraged everybody.

The hate lived on and progressed, day by day. The Uchiha’s reputation flew downhill. Shisui’s death wasn’t the only reason for that, only a mere factor. It was like the entire village had removed the invisible veil of disdain they had on that clan. Before, they displayed their dislike in snide comments here and there. In unpleasant looks, corporations provided poor services to member of that clan. Now, they had a reason to shun the Uchihas. Evidences came out, most of them true but still sprinkled with a bit of exaggeration. Individuals of higher rank took police reports out of the archives, revealing that Uchihas gave themselves noticeably shorter jail sentences. It only fueled the cloud of resentment civilians held toward one of the village’s founding clan.

All of that accumulated. _And fast._

Until the fateful day where the son of the main family wiped out each member of his own clan, with the only exception being a traumatized child. It was a gory night, ravaged with guilt and regrets.

Hypocritically, Konoha mourned the death of that clan. Lying to themselves and their children, declaring that the genocide was a tragedy. A nightmare made by a maniac. A maniac they vowed to kill to give the redemption the Uchiha clan so deserved.

Bedtime stories changed. Going from “If you don’t do your homework, a big terrible monster will eat you!” to “If you don’t do it, _Itachi Uchiha_ will come here at night. You don’t want that, do you?”. The village regarded the clan in prestige and strength. There was now a proudness to claim that someone once saw an Uchiha in action.

The sharingan, once perceived with skepticism, was now the ultimate weapon. Its prowess becoming close to a legend between the village’s walls.

The adults coddled, with large, suffocating arms, the last remaining loyal Uchiha. Memories of a prodigious bright teen drifting through the years. Until, one day, the nation only remembered Shisui as one of Itachi’s victim.

Konohagakure’s future was harsh. Painted by war and betrayal. Many events led to its downfall. Corruption was engraved in the village’s very structure. It didn’t last long before its foundations gave way under all the destruction done through decades of treachery. They had seen it years beforehand, in the Nine-Tails attack, where the only way an enemy could have learned of Kushina’s pregnancy was if an ally disclosed it to them. They had known there was a mole in their system.

The Hokage himself also had suspicions on who it was. But he and the council did nothing about it. Nobody discussed the elephant in the room, and it only helped Konoha to weaken their defenses.

They held their own during Orochimaru’s raid. With difficulty, but they survived and came out victorious.

Of course they had! They were the Village Hidden in The Leaves of the land of fire, the biggest, strongest nation in world! Nobody could defeat them.

If he could, Shisui would have told those who uttered those words to keep quiet. Premonitions were real, and the easiest way to stay alive in life was to deal with them with utter care. And to _not search for trouble_. Kami knew the number of times someone said, “There’s no way we’re going to get ambushed tonight. Stop stressing out!” only to get their throat ripped open in their sleep.

An Uzumaki alleging to be a God was the aftermath of _‘searching for trouble’_.

Pain, in his divine glory, visited Konoha. It took less than a day for the village to turn into a dust field. Because of Tsunade, most people survived. It was a miracle that Konoha had the tenacity to get back up after that. The Hokage was in a coma, but the population continued to fight to stay alive, always with a stubborn flame burning profoundly in their eyes.

_If the ashes are still hot, it’s easy for a flame to stay on fire. But as soon as it cools too much, the flame will remain extinguished forever._

It had happened to Shisui a long time ago; it hurt him to watch the same thing form with the nation he loved.

Because for Konoha, even though Pain’s attack was a tragic stab in the chest, the Fourth Great Shinobi War was a direct, unexpected shot straight through the head.

A human could survive a stab wound. A shot was a completely separate matter.

But, even with a gun aimed directly at their faces, they went on _and fought_. They united, forged alliances with former enemy countries, all in the hope to win against their attacker.

An attacker that was holding the gun with an iron grip, but decided to not shoot right away. He wasn’t there for chaos; he was there for the fear and desolation he built in others. To hear them plead, cry, beg for him to stop.

Madara was a vile man. Horrendous by all standards.

_Zetsu was worse._

If someone asked Shisui to pick one of them to send to a slaughterhouse, the teen wouldn’t even blink and choose Zetsu. And if he had the option of Kaguya, Kami knew she was going to get it.

It didn’t even matter, anyway. The Goddess only came toward the end of the war, but it didn’t change the fact that the ‘trio from hell’, as Shisui dubbed it, had single-handedly destroyed human civilization. Apart from Naruto, they left no one alive.

Shisui didn’t count. _He didn’t even know what he was_.

Naruto would not survive long in the place they were standing. Shisui had studied the perimeter, floating tens of meters in the gray sky. The vestiges of the past fights laid everywhere the eye could reach, craters overlooked the landscape, deeper than most lake Shisui had seen in the… _oh Kami_ … _34 years_ of his existence.

He was so much older now, and yet he was still stuck in the body of his teenager self.

Anyway, the surrounding lands were the canopy of devastation. No tree in view, no matter how high Shisui elevated himself to see farther. The floor was muddy and covered with corpses. He could look nowhere without seeing a fresh body in his vision. The ashes and dirt were still present in the air, making Shisui content that particles and solid matter couldn’t touch him. He hated the sensation of dirt in his eyes.

Naruto, in the seventh Hokage cloak he never took off, was sitting under the shade of a medium-sized boulder, the head of a dead Shikamaru cradled on his laps. Shisui flew over, forcing his body to not pass through the huge rock as he rested on it, transparent legs crossed patiently.

Naruto was quiet, no tears leaking from his eyes. It wasn’t surprising; the Hokage had grown rather detached after Kakashi’s, Sakura’s, Tsunade’s, Konohamaru’s, Hinata’s, Kiba’s, Shino’s — _well_ , everyone’s death.

War and trauma can change someone so much. People as colorful as Obito could turn dull and dark.

And the inverse could happen, as well. Naruto had lost his light, but if he really tried, maybe he could ignite it again.

_Not that it’ll ever happen._

Sometime the wisest thing to do was giving up.

Shisui had, and he could see in the carefully blank face of the blond that he did as well.

Removing the none existent dust from under his fingernails, the Uchiha watched with disinterest the seventh Hokage sliding the Nara’s corpse off from his own body. His chakra, devoid of all the power that once made the ninja famous, was flaring inconsistently at the unusual rhythm of the Uzumaki’s heartbeat.

Like one of Sasori’s puppet, Naruto stood up, gaze drifting everywhere around him. Like always, it passed through Shisui, not even resting on his form a second. His eyes were dull, without the spark that originally attracted Shisui to follow his journey. His face, once round with baby fat, was now long and stern. He was a shadow of his former self, a shadow that, like Obito, had matured beyond recognition.

Shisui couldn’t recall the last time he had seen Naruto smile.

With hands covered in dirt and grime, Naruto gently bent down and picked up a disregarded kunai tossed from the battle that occurred a few hours ago. The handle was rusty, like every other weapon littering the floor. Madara and Obito heavily targeted fabricants of weapons in the beginning of the war. The remaining weapons were all in terrible conditions. The warriors were constantly on the rush; they didn’t have time to produce brand new ones.

Naruto lead the blade to his left pectoral, the tip lightly brushing against the fabric of his blood-stained shirt. Shisui shifted from his spot on the boulder. Looking away from the scene, he laid his back against the rock, imagining how the touch of such a hard surface must feel like. His head rested against his arms. He fluttered his crimson eyes shut.

The silence, deafening after years of constant explosions, was shattered by a simple whisper. So quiet Shisui had to strain his ears to catch it.

“… I’m sorry.”

He heard the intake of air, then a wet sound.

The noise of metal clattering to the ground followed.

A few minutes passed, laboured breath becoming fainter and fainter.

Before, ultimately, after a heavy thud, _everything became silent._

Shisui opened his eyes, still as red and piercing as ever, and stared directly at the sun.

Maybe if he stared long enough, he could make himself go blind and _the images would finally stop_.

For the first time in his life, he was glad he lost hope a long time ago.

_Because this would have ruined him._


	2. CH1- A Very Old Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Old men are spooky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Cursing and description of gore

Three weeks passed by, Shisui didn’t move a muscle, content on just staring at the sky.

The first few days were radio silence. Not a single sound appeared other than the breeze wandering through the rocky, deserted terrain.

No plant could grow in such an arid area. To meet fertile lands, Shisui would have to float for kilometers on end.

Or maybe he was wrong: nature could have very well taken over the area. It wasn’t like he checked, the last thing he wanted was to have decomposed bodies imprinted permanently in his retina.

Little by little, the natural cycle returned to the lands. The quiet area now filled by the perpetual buzz of the blowflies that should, by that time, be laying their eggs in the open wounds of the victims.

Life went on like that, for the weeks that moved by since Naruto’s suicide.

Now, Shisui could hear the cries of vultures flying graciously in a Capri blue sky. The dust had the time to settle down, carrying out the true colour of the sky that shone through the thick clouds. And that, for the first time in ages.

A pity no one other than himself could enjoy it.

Shisui’s favorite hobby was counting the number of feathers on those colossal birds. Most people found them ugly, because of their bald red heads. Shisui did as well. The memories of the many times he encountered those creatures were never lovely ones. However, he couldn’t repress the fondness he developed for them.

They may resemble more of a turkey than any other species, they may be loud and they may be savage; but without them, he would have been alone in this place.

_Completely alone_ —

“ **Hello!** ”

If Shisui had a heart, he would have gotten a heart attack.

“The fuck?!” He sat up quickly, so stunned that he didn’t register that his legs were mingling with the rock he was resting on, his concentration to not fuse his body with it receding.

He peered down and immediately regretted it. Yes: there was a dude ominously standing there, _Kami knows why and how_. Yes: the stranger addressed his word _at Shisui_.

But goddamnit! Decomposition was a horrendous sight. A view he tried his hardest to avoid since the… _incident_ of his childhood.

The blood staining the floor was no longer its rich red, having swapped over time to a dreadful brown. The corpses had lost every semblance of the humanity they once had, having reached the mark where the decays were prominent enough that the nails and teeth dissociated from their blackened carcasses.

_Maggots were everywhere_.

Shisui felt like puking.

Luckily, after drowning, Shisui hadn’t kept his sense of smell. If he did, he would either be vomiting his guts out or be a sobbing mess right now.

The teen squeezed his eyes shut, making grand gestures with his arms. “Oh, God! That’s disgusting. Don’t stand there! “

A low, amused voice called out. “ **It’s not that bad! Now, come down here. We need to talk.** “

“Fuck off. If you want to speak; _you’re_ climbing. I’m not moving.”

He crossed his arms to add effects.

He heard a long sigh coming from below. “ **Ok… Fine**.” There was the distinctive noise of fingers snapping. “ **I’m here. Happy, now?** ” a voice said _right next_ to Shisui’s left ear.

The Uchiha let out a very manly shriek, twisting around faster than lightning and pushing the man the farthest away from him as possible. The man didn’t regain his balance and fell down the boulder. Shisui didn’t pay attention; too interested in staring, mouth agape, at his translucent palm.

“D- Did I just… _touched_ you?!”

“ **Of course you did. You rude boy.** ”

Shisui yelped, turning a perfect 180. “Stop doing that!”

The man shrugged, not bothering to apologize. They were _almost_ face to face; it irritated Shisui that this man was over two heads taller than him. On his tippy toes, the teen would be lucky to reach the base of his incredibly long goatee. That dude was massive. How on Earth did Shisui push this guy off a freaking boulder?

Ah, yeah. _He was old_. That must be why. He looked older than Hiruzen himself, which was a feat few people could pride themselves in. All the spiky strands of hair on this dude’s skull were silver. Wrinkles strewed the entirety of his greyish face. He looked lifeless, inhuman.

He also had horns and three eyes; Shisui struggled to keep his focus elsewhere.

“ _What_ are you? Like, no offense, but you kinda don’t really look alive.” Shisui asked.

The old man raised a nonexistent eyebrow. “ **As if you’re one to talk. I was there when you died in that river. You aren’t the epitome of ‘looking alive’ either, child.** ”

Shisui nodded. “Fair enough.” he outstretched his right hand. “The name’s Shisui. Shisui Uchiha.”

The man accepted the offer, grasping in his large palm the porcelain white hand of the younger. “ **Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, but you may recognize me as the Sage of Six Paths. It’s a pleasure to meet you in person**.” The touch was icy, not the recognisable elastic texture of human skin. It was like Shisui was holding a prosthesis made of rubber.

Shisui pulled away.

“I guess that the same goes for me? Am I supposed to bow down or something, now? Aren’t you one of those dudes that religious worshiped?” The teen inquired, sitting down and plopping himself back in the same position he maintained for weeks. The head of the giant blocked the sun from hitting Shisui directly in the eyes. He wouldn’t mind if it did, though. His glowing orbs have had a shit ton of time to adjust to such an intense light. “No response? Then I guess I don’t have to. Cool.”

“ **You’re too comfortable in my presence. I don’t know how to feel about that…** ”

“Why would I not be? I mean, you literally cannot do anything against me.” He laughed bitterly. “Look at me; I’m invincible!”

“ **It’s not because you don’t possess a physical body that you’re invisible. Don’t be foolish.** ”

“Foolish?” Shisui scoffed. “ _As if_. It doesn’t matter if you’re a god or whatever shit you guys love to roleplay as. Your actions won’t reach me. Kill me? _Please_. You cannot get rid of my family either since I don’t have one anymore. All my friends are dead and even the option of making me watch it all over again won’t work because…” He pointed at his bright red eyes, patterned with the design of a black shuriken.” _… I cannot forget_.”

“ **Yes, I cannot hurt you physically. But I’m warning you; there are infinite ways to hurt someone. Don’t assume you’re at your lowest because life can always get worse. I could easily make your presence fade. Like you never existed.** ”

“Then go ahead, I won’t stop you. Look around! _How can it be worse than that_?! Is there even anything left to live for?” Shisui gestured to the open world. “No one is alive! And then, there’s _me_ , who’s stuck here for no fucking reason!”

The Sage sat down, half a meter away from the Uchiha. He looked over the horizon. At a world that got rid of humanity. “ **Yes, there’s a reason.** _ **I**_ **should know that, since it’s my fault that you’re here.** _ **I’m the one**_ **who made you watch the end of the world.** ”

Shisui’s body went deathly still, his entire attention fixated on the elder. “ _What._ ”

Hagoromo grimaced. He ran his long, damaged fingers through the dense layers of his hair, looking at the verge of pulling some strands out. “ **Look, it was a mistake. A misjudgment of my part. Decades ago, I saw parts of the future. Only bits, but it was enough to understand that it was the premonition of a war. One massive beyond anything our realm had yet to witness. But I knew that the most powerful reincarnations of my sons would pop up around that period. I expected them to defuse the situation without my help. As you can see, that plan didn’t really work**.”

“Aren’t you, like, the strongest man in existence? You could have very well taken care of this by yourself. Don’t tell me that removing Madara and Obito was that hard.”

The Sage huffed. “ _ **It is hard!**_ **I cannot interact with living beings, the last people I’ve actually spoken to were the Uzumaki and Uchiha duo. You said it earlier; I don’t look alive. Well, that’s because I’m dead,** _ **like you**_ **. Except** _ **not really**_ **. Don’t stare at me like that: It’s complicated! There are components of space-time continuum and centuries old myths that I don’t feel like discussing with you**.”

The teen coughed in his elbow, an action he shouldn’t be able to make, since his body couldn’t take in air. “Geez, thanks. Way to feel appreciated. You still hadn’t explained why I’m here.”

“ **Even though I’ve taken fewer precautions than what the world needed, it doesn’t mean that there wasn’t any. In every major historical event, I made the choice of bringing one person in the dimension we are currently standing in. It was for the worst-case scenario where human race would reach its extinction. If it happened, I would send this person in the past to fix the mistakes and preserve a healthy balance of life and death.** ” Hagoromo said. “ **I wasn’t expecting** _ **at all**_ **that things would go this badly. So, I didn’t have the energy nor the time to prepare safeguards other than you**.”

“I’m your safeguard? _Me._ ”

“ **Yes, you are humanity’s last hope**.”

“I’m honoured- really. But I don’t think there're any ways I, _alone_ , could solve the war. If armies working for decades couldn’t do it, I’m pretty sure _I_ can’t.” Shisui said nonchalantly. “I love hard missions, don’t mind me, but I’m not too keen on taking impossible ones.”

The sage frowned, his face looking centuries older. “ **I’m giving you the chance to save your friends and your village. You can’t just… refuse**.”

“What’s the point of going back if _I know_ I can’t save them? _Zetsu is immortal_! The only thing I could do is delaying that fucker. It isn’t an option, since he would still end up destroying the world, anyway.” Shisui said. “In theory, _‘going in the past_ ’ is cool and all, but there’s no way I could pull that off. And seeing my friends die - _again_ \- isn’t something I particularly want to experience.”

“ **Young man, there is a way to dispose of immortals: you’re forgetting mūbushīrupīsu.”**

Shisui didn’t forget it. Mūbushīrupīsu was the key to the Allied Shinobi Forces’ ‘victory’. It was the hardest seal to produce in history: constituted of four thousand singular kanjis, written on an unique three meters long paper only found in the vestiges of an underground temple in Uzushiogakure, and painted with an expensive ink created by an artisan living in the Land of Snow. It took months of searching theories for the draft, and an entire day for Naruto and Mito to compose the final version. Once finished, Naruto lost permanently one quarter of Kuruma’s chakra because of how depleted his reserves were.

The seal was a space-time traveling device, permitting the person or object touching it to travel dimensions. It was a one-way trip, and since Kaguya and Zetsu were immortal, the only way to get rid of them would be to banish them from the face of the Earth. Originally, the seal masters conceived it with the plan of Naruto using it. The seal only worked if they attached it to a solid matter composed of chakra. They assumed Naruto’s chakra cloak was enough.

_Wrong_. They overlooked that Kuruma’s powers were corrosive. It burnt the edge of the paper, and before everything went up in flames, they officially canceled the plan for years.

It was until three weeks ago, Naruto finally opened up on his failed attempt of disposing the world of Zetsu and Kaguya. The story interested the commander, Shikamaru Nara, and made a last resort plan bloom from his mind.

_If the Nine-Tails chakra’s coat didn’t work…_

_What about a Susanoo’s?_

Shisui’s breath itched. “I- I’m… maybe..? I don’t know it’s-” He furrowed his eyebrows, eyes darting everywhere as he took in the prospect. “… It would work, but I’m not a seal master. I don’t think I could eve-”

Hagoromo held up his hand. “ **We’ll worry about that later. You have enough time to learn.** ” His gaze hardened, as solid as steel. “ **Would you accept this mission if making the seal was possible?** ”

“It’s a suicide mission, right? I- I’ll… _die_ if I use it… like Sasuke..?”

The sage’s face softened, nodding hesitantly.

“But… but everyone else would live. Th- They won’t… They won’t…” Shisui’s voice wobbled, looking overwhelmed.

Hagoromo said nothing.

They stayed silent, each in their heads. Contemplating the possibility of a world where chaos and wars were absent, or as absent as it could be in a realm ruled by ninja.

After a while, the teen uttered a murmur, so light and quiet that even the soft wind was louder than it.

“… I accept...”

And then, with more strength. Like the idea finally registered.

“I accept!” He cracked his knuckles, a malicious smirk sitting on his face. “I’ll pulverize Zetsu. That’s now my life goal. _I’m going to make that fucker cry_.”

“ **Relax, child**.” The sage said, even though he didn’t seem to disagree. “ **There’s a long trip ahead of you. Killing Zetsu will be the last thing on your list. Oh! By speaking of lists, make one. It’ll help. Kami knows how many things you’ll have to fix up. I’ll stay by your side, just to make sure you don’t mess up events too much-** ”

“You’re saying that like I’ll cause trouble on purpose-”

“ **-And, with that… Good luck!** ” The sage grinned, pushing with both hands the teen off the boulder, exactly like Shisui did earlier.

“Wha-!” The Uchiha shouted, annoyance radiating from his form. He passed through the rocky floor, like expected, but instead of being able to fly back up, he felt walls, the same texture as slime, engulf him into a complete darkness. As he opened his mouth to scream at the sage, a gooey substance, tasting like charcoal, flood in.

The only word he heard was the “ **Retribution**!” the sage yelled back.

And then a whooshing sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm making the tragic backstory so subtle tehehehe
> 
> Chapter 1 (or two?) is done! Yay!
> 
> I’m trying to update each four days. Not sure if I’ll keep up, but oh well!
> 
> Any feedbacks? I swear, comments make my day!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. CH2- Words Painted in Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up in the middle of nowhere sucks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter! (sorreh)

The sky was a silverish blue, stuffed with an infinite amount of clouds, each as grey as stone.

The vultures had left. Shisui couldn’t recall when, the more he tried to figure it out, the more he felt dizzy. One moment they were there. The next gone.

With a slight pang in the heart, the teen went on with his only other hobby: staring at the sun.

It had been a grounding activity for him. Counting down the number of times he saw it rise helped figure the time that kept moving.

Shisui stared at the sun long enough for neon green spots to appear in his vision.

How strange, its energy had somewhat diminished. The atmosphere didn’t look as… dry as before. Was it about to rain? Shisui hoped it would, just to witness a flash of diversity in his slow, humdrum life.

He squinted.

_Was the sun always this bright?_

His eyes ached. _Wonderful_.

Shisui inhaled and choked, hands reaching over his throat. He could feel himself breathing. _What_?!

He finally removed his gaze from the misty sky, taking into accounts his surroundings.

_Trees._

Trees everywhere, going as far as the eye can see. A forest of birch trees, some taller than 20 meters, besieging him in all directions.

And, as he peeked below him, he could see _and feel_ soft blades of green, healthy grass nuzzling his bare legs.

_His bare legs that weren’t translucid._

Shisui slowly blinked, ambling his hand - _that wasn’t transparent_ \- to pluck one out from the lush soil. His fingers didn’t pass through the solid matter, taking in a gentle hold the small, cool blade of grass.

And just like that, _he remembered_.

The old man.

The deal.

_He was alive._

Shisui pinched his forearm, jolting back as he felt a slight pain.

He was alive!

His hands flew everywhere, feeling his face, the grass, the trees- _everything._

And Shisui would forever deny it, but he was infused with such a vivid sense of glee that he forgot all manners implanted in his brain for an instant. _Jumping, rolling, running, climbing_ trees just to tumble down, going back on his feet every time just to do it all over again.

He was euphoric. _He was alive_.

It all came to a halt when, as he was climbing yet another birch tree, the words “ **Are you done?** ” got printed on the white surface of its bark, at the exact emplacement his arms clutched on. The letters were a dark brown, almost black, as if someone wrote them with straight up _fire_. Shisui’s hands slipped from the branch he was latching on and resulted in a seven-meters fall.

The Uchiha did a flip, landing on both feet with the grace the world appreciated him for. He did a double take, activating his sharingan and staring at the sentence from far away.

Either he was insane, or the words wrote themselves _right in front of him_.

In slow motion, he observed as “ **H** ” scribbled itself on a bark at Shisui’s eye level. Without thinking, the teen flung a kunai, the tool burying itself in the tree to the hilt. There were no screams, no shifting of clothes or hiss of breath. He couldn’t sense anyone near. Like not a soul other than Shisui was in these woods.

It didn’t feel right.

Shisui jumped as the birch next to him burned, letters etching into it. Before Shisui had the time to react, “ **Stop it!** ” composed itself in sloppy calligraphy. “ **I’m Hagoromo.** ”

Lowering his weapon, the Uchiha cocked his head sideways.

“Uh?”

________________

“… So, you’re telling me that ghosts can scribble… _thoughts_ on walls?” Shisui said, tone dubious.

“ **Yes.** ”

Shisui frowned. “I- It doesn’t… make sense. How come _I_ couldn’t write as well?”

“ **It’s a long story.** ”

“God, you’re so useless.” The teen groaned.

“ **K.** ”

Shisui rolled his eyes, huffing. “So… what’s the plan? I’ll say _go to Konoha_ , but I don’t even know where we are.” He glanced around at all the luxuriant ferns, miniature firs, and large birch trunk that blanketed the landscape. “It’s not the land of fire, that’s for sure… I don’t think I ever came here.”

“ **Oh, I know our emplacement.** ” stabbed itself in the tree. “ **We are in the middle of one of the Land of Water’s islands. West from Kirigakure.** ”

Shisui gasped, gawking at the message. “What?! _How_?! It’s like an entire ocean away! _How did I end up here_?!”

“ **… Magic?** ”

The teen snorted. “ _Magic. Of course freaking magic._ ” He mumbled as he dusted himself from all the dirt that sullied his clothes. Wearing black made dust so much more apparent than any other fabric. And, not for the first time, Shisui wished his clan picked up any other color than that one.

Red would have been _so fitting_. White would be cool as well, since it would pay tribute to the Uchiwa fang’s color scheme.

“ **Maybe you should get rid of your shirt? It won’t do well if someone saw you with your clan’s emblem. Don’t let people know another Uchiha is alive.** ”

Shisui hummed. “Oh. So my family is already dead? Sad _._ ” He didn’t look bothered by it. “It reminds me, you never really specified _when_ I’ll end up.”

“ **A few days before the rookie 9’s graduation exam**.”

“Oh. _Okay_. A bit earlier than I expected.” Shisui said. “But I… guess it’s good? The sooner the better.”

“ _ **Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I’ll ask again: get rid of your shirt**_ **. We aren’t in secure territory.** ” wrote itself on the tree.

Shisui gave the tree a ‘ _really?_ ’ look. “I am _not_ stripping half naked.”

“ _ **Then get yourself another.**_ **Keeping that one on yourself is searching for trouble.** ”

“And where do you-” Shisui froze for a few seconds. A grin gradually forming on his pale face. He headed, with steps light and quiet, to an accumulation of ferns. He uprooted and threw them all in the same spot.

Soon enough, an immense pile of theses plants laid at Shisui’s feet. The boy patted the top.

“ **… What are you doing** _ **?**_ ”

“I’m making a bed!” He said, adding more ferns on the mountain.

“ _ **Why?**_ ”

Shisui swatted his hand in an uncaring motion. “I’m tired. Got to replenish my energy for the long trip ahead. Am I right?”

“ **Yes. But not here** _ **. Kami**_ **-** _ **definitely not here**._”

The teen smiled viciously, drawling the words on his tongue. “And why is that?”

“ **It’s dangerous! The woods could be full of bears, enemies could try to ambush you, we have no upg-** ”

The teen covered the sentence on the bark with his palm. His grin all pearly white teeth, he laughed. “There’s _no way_ we’re going to get ambushed tonight. _Stop stressing out_!”

The words wrote themselves on the ground, tearing through the grass. “ **You can’t just say that!** _ **You just jinxed yourself**_ **!** ”

As if listening to the Sage’s complaints, six chakra sources popped up at the edges of Shisui’s sensing radius. All at the basic level of Jōnin, the spots were moving straight in the Uchiha’s direction at an impressive speed.

_What are the odds?_

Shisui cracked his knuckles and started a small warmup. He smiled cheekily at the ground, where the Sage transcribed messages of utter panic.

“Welp, looks like a shirt is coming our way! _Happy_?”

As a response, a beautiful “ **:(** “ drew itself in the pear-green soil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see: I love clouds. Okay, “love” may be a stretch, but still. I swear to god each scenery I describe always mentions clouds. What can I do? Clouds are cute hehe
> 
> It wouldn’t surprise me if I use wrong terminology for some expressions and words. Like, “ambling his hand”. I have no idea if it works, but let’s just pretend that it does!
> 
> I made Shisui have a “crazy moment” where he just does strange things (aka jump around and rolling on the floor for no reason). Since he’s quite different from how I portrayed him in the original fic, I told myself: Why not? He went through some fucked up shit, but I like to imagine him just being a child for an instant.
> 
> Also, unimportant fact: I made a point of Shisui using “Oh god!” rather than “Oh Kami!”, contrary to the other characters that’ll come up, just for self-entertainment purposes. For me, it’s like he’s breaking the fourth wall, since I think “Kami” means “God” in Japanese. You can correct me if I’m wrong.
> 
> In this “AU”, I’m making premonitions a real thing. If Tsunade is shit at gambling while Naruto’s the grandmaster, if each time someone says your name you sneeze, then I’m pretty sure there’s something other than simple luck here.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for reading! You are outstanding! :DD

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, that's a rewrite.  
> Srry for not really completing my original work. I wasn't satisfied with a LOT of aspects.  
> This story is probably going to be more chill, I want to just relax and write because i want to.  
> Thanks for anyone reading the first chapter of my rewrite, ur awesome


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